I celebrate the tweets of Belfast Mayor Mairtin O’Muilleoir. Historians will value these tweets as an insight into the minutae (no tweet too trivial) of being Mayor in a multi-cultural city like Belfast.
8am
.Mairtin bids his 7,735 followers a cheery Maidin Maith
.Ever the optimist Mairtin has decided to say Hello to Autumn
.Mairtin, quotes Seamus Heaney and notes his Poet Laureate will be joining him to open a Book of Condolence.
.Mairtin retweets a pic of himself from a charity run to raise funds for local childrens hospice.
10am
.Mairtin tweets pic of Alliance Councillor Maire Hendron signing the Book of Condolence. (At this point Im not actually sure if his committment to a diverse Belfast extends to tweeting pics of SDLP Councillors signing the Book of Condolence).
.Mairtin is honoured to be joined by the Belfast Poet Laureate and one of his chaplains Rev Margaret Ferguson, who is I believe Methodist. Mairtin reflects the Citys diversity by having loadsa chaplains….eight.
.Mairtin is off to meet the pioneers of the Titanic Church and reflects that Belfast is “blessed with people of good heart”
.Mairtin retweets a Seamus Heaney quote from arty person Brian Spencer.
.Mairtin retweets an observation that he (Mairtin) has “wisdom”.
.Mairtin retweets a Catholic priest, who has observed Mairtin mentioned the Bible in a radio interview.
.Mairtin retweets an observation “do you ever sleep?”
11am
.Mayor retweets the thanks of the Hospice for which he and others raised funds.
Noon.
.Mairtin is in the Titanic Quarter with Chris Bennett (chaplain to Titanic Quarter)
.Mairtin tweets something I dont understand about the upcoming Belfast Festival at Queens.
.Mairtin notes…profoundly that the River Lagan meets the Sea.
.Mairtin retweets a series of tweets about the Book of Condolence.
Mairtin tweets that he is at DONG Energy, a major employer.
.Mairtin tweets a pic of Man From Dong getting Belfast Ambassador Award.
2pm
.Mairtin tweets a pic of an autographed copy of The Cure at Troy (Seamus Heaney)
4pm
.Mairtin tweets a video where he shares his Vision.
5pm
.Mairtin retweets a message in Irish pointing out a BBC Special on Seamus Heaney.
.Mairtin announces that he will be chairing the monthly Belfast Council meeting from 6pm. He will be off Twitter …thank God, I cant keep up.
10pm
.Mairtin tweets he is calling it a day.
.Mairtin tweets that Rev Margaret Ferguson read from the “poet David” at the Book of Condolence ceremony.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
Term as Mayor seems to be going well.
And how would you judge that exactly?
I think the idea of the mayor having a chaplain from each religion is a very good idea. Seven chaplains reaches out to the diversity of belfast.
He seems to have had a very good start. He has a chance to stand to be an MLA or MP for South Belfast in the fullness of time.
Typical “fence sitting” qualified comment from you.
I think he has EIGHT chaplains and he is not the first Mayor to have more than one.
His acceptance of the idea of multiple chaplaincy is of course to be welcomed and in marked contrast to the boorish “Im an ex combatant…Im an ex-prisoner…Im an athiest” mantra of his political friends at St Oliver Plunketts just a few weeks ago.
I have no idea on how Mairtin O’Muilleoir stands on issues of faith but I am prepared to accept that he is a man of faith and trying to reach out to all parts in the city. The alternative view is that it is just a cynical exercise in being all things to all people.
Earlier today the Mayor tweeted a quote from Matthew and often exchanges tweets with various people of faith.
of course it is entirely possible that he is not himself a Christian (or a member of the other non-Christian faiths) and still accept the good intent and offices of these people.
The other tweets are interesting.
Certainly as Mayor, he wants to put out a positive image of the City.
And he has a key role in being the “acceptable face of Sinn Fein”, the sort of SF person who wont scare off moderate unionists because he is too close to the Felons Club.
I think that more than two years ago, he was selected as a a SF candidate with the Mayors parlour in mind.
There are SF people who are not scary to the moderates.
And likewise DUP.
Will Ruth Patterson be Mayor of Belfast? Shes scarey.
Gavin Robinson was not scary.
Will Mairtin O’Muilleoir be attending events like Castlederg in his capacity as Mayor of Belfast? No.
Was he selected by Sinn Fein as a negotiator with Richard Haass? No.
Spike Murray is one of the SF negotiators…not even an elected representative.
Spike might well scare moderate unionists as the unacceptable face of Sinn Fein.
can you really see Mairtin having the clout to represent the harder SF line with Haass….and with respect to Spike, can you really see him in South Belfast art galleries talking about Seamus Heaney to the glitterati.
Spike Murray in the Ulster Tatler?
horses for courses as they say.
But the interesting thing is that Mairtin tweets every bathroom visit. And not the only politician who does the “all the things to all people” twitter thing.
And that COMES ACROSS as POTENTIALLY insincere and certainly a legitimate target for some gentle satire.
There is pf course a calculated…political…dimension. As there should be. But in singing the praises of his City, the Mayor, a sophisticated man, is leaving critical facility behind him.
And his followers…often not in any way connected to Sinn Fein are just too sycophantic for my tastes. They want to be seen to know the Mayor. They might not be so anxipus to re-tweet Spike Murray.
You are of course far too qualified in talking about any future role that Mairtin might have. South Belfast MLA? There is a quota there of course and Mairtin can bring a few votes from leafy Balmoral than alex Maskey and not necessarily lose the Markets.
As always SF Headquarters makes the decisions.
Well there is a view that Mairtin can *eat* into the SDLP vote in South Belfast.
And who holds this view?
I seem to recollect it was a commentator but I have forgotten which.
Belfast is …
TEXT REMOVED. I CANT BE BOTHERED TO EXPLAIN.